One machine on network won't connect

[Panama Red]

Talked before about this configuration at my work. We have 6 computers connected to an ISDN line. The ISDN modem/router is a four port device and to that is connected a Linksys 5 port switch. 3 XP machines are connected directly to the router and 2 XP and 1 98se are connected to the switch, which is connected to the 4th router port. Four of the XP machines are on the same Work Group while one XP and the 98se are not in the Office workgroup. They only share the internet connection. I was told by the fella that uses that 98se machine that he has been without internet access for about a week. Everything else is working fine on the network and the 98 machine worked fine to for about a month. I looked over the internet configuration on his machine and ran the Setup option again, but I still can't get on. Swapped ports on the switch but that made no difference either. Plan to connect my XP laptop to his line tomorrow to see if it's the line or the computer configuration. Both TCP/IP and NetBEUI protocols are shown on the 98 machine. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

[bailey]

I am thinking they still need to be in the same work group

[Panama Red]

Forgot that part bailey. I tried setting the 98 machine to the same work group as the office machines today and it didn't make any difference. The nic shows up as working ok in the Device Manager, but I may try a different nic too. Still don't know what I'm looking for tho.

[Markoman01027]

Make sure Netbios over TCP is enabled in TCP/IP properties.

[bailey]

do the ipconfig on the 98 machine and post what it says

[Panama Red]

Two good ideas. Thanx guys. I'll check tomorrow and let ya know.

[Panama Red]

Ran ipconfig on the 98 and on two XP's for comparison. The IP Address on the 98 is nowhere close to the XP's and the Default Gateway listing on the 98 is blank. Subnet mask on the 98 is 255.255.0.0 while it is 255.255.255.0 on the XP's. Now, since I'm dumb as a box of rocks on doing anything manually with networking, what's my next step?

[glc]

If the IP on the 98 box is 169.254.x.x that's autoconfiguration. The machine doesn't see the router. Possible causes are a bad NIC or cable, or trashed TCP/IP stack (may require nuke and pave).

[Allanv]

re-add the gateway to the pc and internet should work..

[Panama Red]

Originally posted by glc
If the IP on the 98 box is 169.254.x.x that's autoconfiguration.

That's the numbers, so that part is explained. How do I manually add the Gateway? What about removing the NIC in the Device Manager, then restarting and reinstalling?

[bailey]

that one address is from the wins it assigns a windows address when it does not see a dchp server, and that is what your router is to the network. you want the 98 setting to get id address automaticaly from the dchp server.
the router is the dchp server

[Computer Hobbyist]

Ditch Netbeui.

[Panama Red]

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good! I removed the nic in Device Manager, rebooted and let it find the nic again. Once it was reinstalled, Voila! Back in business. Thanx for the help guys.

[glc]

Originally posted by Computer Hobbyist
Ditch Netbeui.

Why? Netbeui only gets in the way with wireless and it won't cause this issue.

[Computer Hobbyist]

It doesn't just get in the way of wireless. I spent two hours a couple of weeks ago trying to network an XP home machine with a windows 98 machine and got nothing until I removed the Netbeui prodical from the 98 machine. Each machine had an ethernet card and I was connecting through a switch. And a modem from the XP machine to Dialup. I couldn't get the XP machine to see the Windows 98 machine. The Windows machine wouldn't find the XP machine. Netbeui was getting in the way. I don't know why, didn't make any sence to me, but that is what Microsoft suggested. (the alternative was to add Netbeui to the XP machine -- you can find it on your XP disk but it doesn't load during the install.) After that the skys opened and everything was wonderful. If somebody could explain why I'd appreciate it.